Wood on Words: History seems to repeat itself

Friday

Aug 27, 2010 at 12:01 AMAug 27, 2010 at 2:56 AM

It was a common theme among the reactions to the end of the recent chapter of the Rod Blagojevich saga: The one charge out of 24 that the former Illinois governor was convicted of was lying. The response: So he was found guilty of being a politician.

Barry Wood

It was a common theme among the reactions to the end of the recent chapter of the Rod Blagojevich saga:

The one charge out of 24 that the former Illinois governor was convicted of was lying. The response: So he was found guilty of being a politician.

I would like to think that if I were a politician, I would be visibly (and vocally) upset by this crass characterization — but then I probably wouldn’t be a politician.

Then it adds: “frequently used in a derogatory sense, with implications of seeking personal or partisan gain, scheming, opportunism, etc.”

The key is that term “party politics”: “political acts and principles directed toward the interests of one political party or its members without reference to the common good.”

Also in the Webster’s entry for “politician” is “cf. statesman.”

The abbreviation “cf.” is from the Latin verb “conferre” and means simply “compare.” So we read that a “statesman” is “a person who shows wisdom, skill and vision in conducting state affairs and dealing with public issues, or one engaged in the business of government.”

Clearly, a politician does not compare favorably with a statesman.

Lest anyone believe that this is a relatively new development, however, check out the following words of wisdom gleaned from John Bartlett’s “Familiar Quotations”:

“You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.”
— Aristophanes, “Knights” (424 B.C.)

“And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.”
— Jonathan Swift, “Gulliver’s Travels” (1726)

“Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.”
— Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “The Duenna” (1775)

“Politicians (are) a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people, and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest men. I say this with the greater freedom because, being a politician myself, none can regard it as personal.”
— Abraham Lincoln, speech in the Illinois Legislature (1837)